Hard Truth for Author: Publisher Pulls \'The Jefferson Lies\'

By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER

Last month the History News Network voted David Barton's book “The Jefferson Lies” the “least credible history book in print.” Now the book's publisher, Thomas Nelson, has decided to stop publishing and distributing it.

The book, which argues that Thomas Jefferson was an enthusiastic orthodox Christian who saw no need for a wall of separation between church and state, has attracted plenty of criticism since it appeared in April, with an introduction by Glenn Beck. But the death knell came after Jay W. Richards, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and the author, with James Robison, of “Indivisible: Restoring Faith, Family and Freedom Before It's Too Late,” began to have doubts and started an investigation.

According to the Christian magazine World, Mr. Richards, who has appeared at many conferences with Mr. Barton, asked 10 conservative Christian scholars to assess Mr. Barton's work, and the r esults weren't pretty. Glenn Moots of Northwood University in West Palm Beach, Fla., said that Mr. Barton had neglected evidence that Jefferson stood outside “orthodox, creedal, confessional Christianity.” Gregg Frazer of The Master's College, a Christian liberal arts school in Santa Clarita, Calif., raised an eyebrow at the claim that 52 of the 53 delegates at the Constitutional Convention were “orthodox, evangelical Christians.”

On Friday, after Thomas Nelson announced its decision to stop carrying the book, Mr. Barton, who appeared on Time magazine's list of America's 25 most influential evangelical Christians, released a statement saying the publisher had never tried to discuss any problems with the book. “Had they done so,” he wrote, “we would have been happy to provide them with the thorough and extensive historical documentation for any question of issue they raised.”

As of Monday the book was still the top-se lling book about Jefferson at Amazon.com. It also remains for sale on the Web site of WallBuilders, an organization founded by Mr. Barton that describes itself as “dedicated to presenting America's forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on the moral, religious, and constitutional foundation on which America was built.”